One Said Thank You

Passage: Luke 17:11-19

I feel I can relate to the plight of these ten lepers more now than ever before. In our house we
have felt like we need to walk around saying unclean, unclean. Keep your social distance. In
fact many of us can sympathize with this text in new ways.
We will look at this text in two parts.

We are reminded of the humanity of Jesus, walking on the way to His final trip to Jerusalem
well aware of what awaits Him there. We are reminded that the world Jesus walked in is much
like ours as He walks along the borders of Samaria and Galilee, a region divided by race and
racism.
We are reminded that Jesus experienced life much like we do. You are making your way
through your day and then stuff happens, interruptions, sickness, Covid, people with serious
problems, death staring you in the face, the messiness of life.
This is life, this is Jesus’ life. Jesus doesn’t look away, skirt the issue, say He is too busy, or
that He doesn’t have time because He has to be some place. He is the with us God. Wherever
we are, whatever we are doing, however hard or complicated or stressful He is right there.

Leprosy was a horrible, disfiguring disease, there can hardly be a more miserable condition. It
was a cause of great humiliation and shame. They had to walk about calling out unclean. They
could not work and were completely dependent on charity. Besides the painful physical effects,
there were huge psychological effects on one’s mental health from the isolation.
This was the ultimate quarantine situation. Lepers were social distanced from everyone else,
cast outside the community, alone. Cut off from all human contact.
Do we think 6 feet is annoying? One source says the distance for lepers was 50 yards. Can you
imagine lines every 50 yards at Safeway or Costco or here?